Iran and US Pause Fighting Again, TPS Work Permits, July 4th Teen Death Investigation

**A Martínez** (0:02)
Iranians bury the country's supreme leader in the city where he grew up.

**Steve Inskeep** (0:05)
A week-long funeral ended, and so did the latest exchange of fire between the United States and Iran. What happens with peace talks now?

**A Martínez** (0:13)
I'm A Martínez, that is Steve Inskeep, and this is Up First from NPR News.
A change is coming for many Haitians and Syrians in the United States. Any day now, the Trump administration gets final clearance to revoke their permission to work. We hear from Haitians in Springfield, Ohio, the people President Trump and Vice President Vance attacked during the 2024 campaign.

**Steve Inskeep** (0:35)
Also, how did a Mississippi teenager die on a coastal island on the 4th of July? Civil rights attorney Ben Crump is raising questions about the fate of Nolan Wells. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.
Fighting between the United States and Iran appears to be on hold again. This is after two days of an exchange of missile and drone strikes that is testing a ceasefire between the two.

**A Martínez** (1:04)
The US says it hit more than 170 sites inside Iran. Iran says its attacks hit neighboring Gulf states targeting US bases there. All this just as Iran was burying its supreme leader.

**Steve Inskeep** (1:16)
NPR's Kari Khan has been following all of this from Tel Aviv. Hi there, Kari.

**James Percival** (1:21)
Hi.

**Steve Inskeep** (1:21)
You mentioned the funeral of Iran's supreme leader, which I know has been going on for several days, but what was the scene there at the end?

**Kari Khan** (1:27)
Last night was the end of this week long funeral for Ayatollah Ali Khomeini and four of his family members. They were all killed in the first day of the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran. Here are some of the final prayers before his burial in his hometown of Mashhad.
State media showed these huge crowds and you can hear these large groups of women. They're all dressed in black and they're just weeping at the site. These images have tried to portray just this unified country resilient against the US attacks. And Steve, there were also these images of banners and signs held in the crowds over the past days reading hashtag kill Trump. And while at the NATO summit in Turkey this week, Trump addressed those threats, but he also brushed them off.

**Steve Inskeep** (2:15)
Okay. I want to ask you what something else the president said. He was asked about this ceasefire, which keeps being disrupted by exchanges of fire. In Turkey, he said he thought the ceasefire was done, that it was over. So is it?

**Kari Khan** (2:28)
As of now, we don't know when talks will resume. They were put on hold during the weeklong funeral of the Ayatollah. And after saying he thought the ceasefire was over, though, Trump also left the door open to negotiation.
Qatar's foreign minister, who is a lead mediator in the talks yesterday, was making a round of calls, speaking to the regional partners and attempting to just reengage all sides in the conflict.

**Steve Inskeep** (2:52)
I think analysts have assumed the United States just would not want to go back to full scale war and that the Iranians probably wouldn't either. But what do you hear in the region as the firing continues from time to time?

**Kari Khan** (3:03)
I'd say the situation is very tense right now throughout the region.
In this latest round of attacks by Iran, not only were missiles and drones fired at multiple Gulf states, Jordan said it intercepted incoming fire from Iran too, and that's not a usual target for Iran. Iran issued new threats to the UAE just yesterday, and shipping traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz has also dropped dramatically in the last couple of days. Here in Israel, there's a concern about whether they'll get back into the war. Yesterday, Israeli Army Chief of Staff, Ariel Zemir, said Israel is at the ready.
He says even at this very moment, our enemies continue to plot evil, the campaign is not over, and he told this graduating class of Air Force pilots to be ready and to be ready soon. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made similar comments. He and President Trump spoke late last night about US moves in the Gulf, and that was according to the Prime Minister's office.

**Steve Inskeep** (4:04)
And what's happening in Lebanon?

**Kari Khan** (4:06)
A US official told reporters yesterday that talks on implementing that peace deal between Lebanon and Israel are set to take place soon in Rome. And Lebanon's information minister also was asked yesterday if he was concerned about a return to war in light of the US Iranian attacks, and he said no.